First of all, who or what is NIST? NIST stands for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This organization is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce who provides security standards and guidelines for companies to meet the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) through cost effective programs. […]

First, what is GDPR and am I affected by the new compliance regulations? GDPR is the new General Data Protection Regulation that was adopted by the European Union (EU) in April 2016 and will be enforceable starting May 2018. The new GDPR compliance applies to everyone who provides goods and/or services to citizens in the […]

June 26, 2017 Comments Off on Cyberattacks Force Businesses To Shut Down

Many times, the worst we think that would happen in the result of a data breach is the damage of a company’s reputation and the loss of customer trust. Both of these result in a decline of revenue in addition to the amount it will cost to rectify the data breach. According to IBM’s Cost […]

May 15, 2017 Comments Off on We Support Carnegie Mellon University’s Password Research

Carnegie Mellon University released a study in 2013 called “Measuring Password Guessability for an Entire University.” CMU has over 25,000 faculty, staff, and students with a single-sign-on password. With this research study, CMU wanted to analyze how guessable the passwords would be in a password attack by standard password cracking tools and algorithms. A standard […]

April 10, 2017 Comments Off on Making An Informed Decision To Protect Your Network

Humans are very predictable and unless we see our company’s name plastered across every news channel and online search engine due to a data breach, we will probably assume our company’s network is safe and we are doing a decent job protecting it. Companies may slide by for years and not be on a hacker’s […]

March 20, 2017 Comments Off on Put Password Rules In The Hands Of The User

This topic might seem to alarm you since the fate of your company will be placed in the hands of your employees. When I talk to many prospective customers of nFront Security, I hear the common problem of end-users selecting the company name, seasons (Summer, Winter, Fall, and/or Spring), months (January, February, March, etc.), or […]

February 27, 2017 Comments Off on Common Mistakes of IT Administrators

At nFront Security, we believe that providing tips and checklists are a great way for IT Administrators to know if they are forgetting about any important security measures that might have slipped their mind. There is a famous quote that reads: “Rename your ‘To-Do’ list to your ‘Opportunities’ list.” – Steve Maraboli Here are a […]

February 7, 2017 Comments Off on How to Prepare for your Annual IT Audit

An IT audit is the review and evaluation of your company’s IT infrastructure, policies, management, and any related processes. Sometimes IT audits coincide with the annual financial audit. IT audits are very important because it will let you know if your company is being adequately protected by your systems in place. It can also help […]

January 24, 2017 Comments Off on How To Create A Hack-Proof Password Dictionary

Password blacklisting, also known as dictionary checking, is a very important security measure to have in place for passwords. Dictionary checking prevents the use of common passwords like Password, Welcome, and Baseball. We all know these passwords and insecure and ineffective to secure a computer. Therefore, why are we allowing these passwords on our network? […]

January 9, 2017 Comments Off on How To Turn Off LM Hash And Only Use NT Hash

You might be wondering how to prevent Windows from storing a LAN manager hash of your password in Active Directory and local SAM databases. The LM hash is the Windows Active Directory default option for storing passwords that are 14 characters or less. This method is unsafe and should be turned off. When a user […]